Sextant is the eleventh studio album by Herbie Hancock, released in 1973 by Columbia. It is the last album with the Mwandishi-era sextet featuring saxophonist Bennie Maupin, trumpeter Eddie Henderson, trombonist

Julian Priester Julian Priester (born June 29, 1935) is an American jazz trombonist and occasional euphoniumist. He is sometimes credited "Julian Priester Pepo Mtoto". He has played with Sun Ra, Max Roach, Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, and Herbie Hancock. B ...

, bassist Buster Williams and drummer Billy Hart. Synthesizer player

Patrick Gleeson Patrick Gleeson (born November 9, 1934) is an American musician, synthesizer pioneer, composer, and producer. Career Gleeson moved to San Francisco in the 1960s to teach in the English Department at San Francisco State. Gleeson began experimentin ...

and percussionist

Buck Clarke William Lewis "Buck" Clarke (October 2, 1933 – October 11, 1988) was an American jazz percussionist who played with Freddie Hubbard, Herbie Hancock, Les McCann, Russ Freeman, Gerald Albright, Jimmy Smith and others. Clarke's many musica ...

also appear.

Background

Released on 30 March 1973, ''Sextant'' was Herbie Hancock's first album on Columbia Records, and the last with his Mwandishi-era group. The album showcased Hancock's early adoption of synthesizers and electronic effects. Upon release, the record was considered to be a commercial flop.

Critical reception

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

called the album a "gem" which features "a kind of post- modal, free impressionism while gracing the edges of funk."

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...

wrote that, "taking his cue from ilesDavis' swirling, anarchic '' Bitches Brew'' and ''

On the Corner ''On the Corner'' is a studio album by American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer Miles Davis. It was recorded in June and July 1972 and released on October 11 of the same year by Columbia Records. The album continued Davis's exploration o ...

'', Hancock went even further into outer space ..much of ''Sextant'', with its twittering, burbling effects, amounts to a primitive version of Nineties ambient music." The album was called an "uncompromising

avant-funk Avant-funk (also called mutant disco in the early 1980s) is a music style in which artists combine funk and disco rhythms with an avant-garde or art rock mentality. Its most prominent era occurred in the late 1970s and 1980s among post-punk and ...

masterpiece" by

Paste Magazine ''Paste'' is a monthly music and entertainment digital magazine, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with studios in Atlanta and Manhattan, and owned by Paste Media Group. The magazine began as a website in 1998. It ran as a print publication fro ...

Track listing

All songs by Herbie Hancock

Personnel

* Mwandishi ( Herbie Hancock) – piano, Fender Rhodes, clavinet, Mellotron,

ARP 2600 The ARP 2600 is a semi-modular analog subtractive audio synthesizer produced by ARP Instruments, Inc. History Developed by a design team headed by ARP namesake Allen R. Pearlman and engineer Dennis Colin, the ARP 2600 was introduced in 1971 ...

ARP Pro Soloist The ARP Pro Soloist was one of the first commercially successful preset synthesizers. Introduced by ARP Instruments, Inc. in 1972, it replaced the similar ARP Soloist (19701971) in the company's lineup of portable performance instruments. Histo ...

, Moog synthesizer * Mwile ( Bennie Maupin) – soprano saxophone, bass clarinet, piccolo,

afuche The cabasa, similar to the shekere, is a percussion instrument that is constructed with loops of steel ball chain wrapped around a wooden cylinder. The cylinder is fixed to a long, wooden or plastic handle. The metal cabasa was created by Mart ...

* Mganga ( Eddie Henderson) – trumpet, flugelhorn * Pepo (

) – bass trombone, tenor trombone, alto trombone, cowbell * Mchezaji ( Buster Williams) – bass guitar, double bass * Jabali ( Billy Hart) – drums *

–

– percussion

References

External links

*
Sextant
' at

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the ...

{{Authority control 1973 albums Columbia Records albums Herbie Hancock albums Albums produced by Dave Rubinson Albums recorded at Wally Heider Studios Albums with cover art by Mati Klarwein Jazz fusion albums by American artists